Former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Wall Street) apparently thinks that the Democrats got everything they wanted in this agreement President Obama made with the Republican leadership... tax cuts and more tax cuts. And we got an extension of some
December 12, 2010

Former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Wall Street) apparently thinks that the Democrats got everything they wanted in this agreement President Obama made with the Republican leadership... tax cuts and more tax cuts. And we got an extension of some unemployment benefits which as our commenter Mugsy rightfully pointed out in the bobble head thread, never should have been part of this package to begin with.

With Democrats like Ford reading straight from the GOP playbook, who needs Republicans?

DAVID GREGORY: Congressman, how do you see it?

HAROLD FORD JR: This position that Anthony's taking is the one that was rejected on November 2nd. As much as I believe that all taxes should go up on every American to some small extent, we're dealing with a different Congress and a different reality. In comparison to President Clinton when he lost in '94, remember, unemployment was not at 10 percent. The kind of whipping that we took as Democrats in the Congress was not as large and as grave as it was just a few weeks ago.

I think the president should lean more into this agreement. We got everything we wanted. We got the cuts for the middle class, we got a payroll tax cut, we got an acceleration of business tax cuts. We even have extended some of the other tax cuts that the president wanted, and in addition, 13 months of unemployment compensation.

The only thing that we added was the cuts for the top earners. Now that's less than a quarter of the spending. If you look at the bulk of the spending, the additional debt spending here, the majority of it is for the middle class cuts which I support. Now, if we had 65 votes in the Senate, 300 in the House, I think Anthony's point would be the one that would be followed. But President Clinton said it very well. There--this is no time for a Mexican standoff. The challenges we face are grave, the agreement reached by this president and Republicans is a good one. It could have been worse. And, frankly, I think the president should be prouder of it and use different language to support it.

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